Today
Telling the story of Sutton Hoo was the one of the founding purposes of the Sutton Hoo Society in 1984 – and continues to be one of our main functions today.
Every year our team of expert guides deliver about 500 tours around the Royal Burial Ground, telling the story of the site to some 20,000 visitors. Working closely with the National Trust we lead daily public tours as well as private tour groups, and deliver a programme of specialist subject talks.
We are very proud that many reviews of the National Trust site say that the guided tour of the burial grounds was the highlight of their visit, and greatly helped their understanding of the place.
Our guiding team enjoys a programme of continuous professional development and opportunities to broaden their knowledge, while there is a detailed programme of training and mentoring in place to develop new guides’ expertise.
If you would like to know more about our tours, or are interested in joining the guiding team then please email
Background
The Sutton Hoo Society was established in 1984 with two main purposes. The first was to show visitors around the excavations which were then under way at Sutton Hoo under the direction of Martin Carver and the Birmingham University Field Archaeology Unit. The site could be accessed by a public footpath, and the flow of visitors had meant that the archaeologists were constantly distracted from their work, by explaining to visitors what they were doing and what was being discovered.
The second role of the Society at that time was to provide information to the Project in terms of useful local knowledge: people, businesses and suppliers of equipment etc. which meant that they could plan their work more efficiently. Over time, this role was taken over by Peter Berry who became site manager.
The Society continued to give guided tours, building up a team of guides from enthusiastic local people. As the excavation progressed the story of the history of the site and the Wuffing dynasty was added to the tour and soon we were to have the sand bodies (or ‘deviant burials’) to show visitors. These proved extremely popular and as their place in the story of the site had not yet been fully worked out, they provided guides and visitors with possibilities for speculation. These bodies are no longer on display on the site, although there is a model of one of them that can be viewed.
1984: Site guide John Warburton explaining the archaeology to visitors
©R. Hoppitt
Site guide Jenny Cant explaining the finer details of the sand bodies to a tour group.
©R. Hoppitt
1985 Sarah Caddick with a school party from Bury St Edmunds
©R. Hoppitt
2023 Sutton Hoo Society guide Marc Brewster explaining aspects of the Mound 2 burial to a tour group.
©Steve Cant
The excavation work finished in the autumn of 1991, and the Project staff returned to York University where the Sutton Hoo Research Project was then based.
However, visitors still made their way along the public footpath to see the site and so the Society, with permission from the land owner, continued to tell the story of Sutton Hoo and the excavations.
In the late 1990s the National Trust took over custodianship of the site, and we remained as partners with the Trust to continue to provide guided tours to visitors.
